Grace in the Wilderness

Thus says the LORD: “The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness; when Israel sought for rest, the LORD appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. (Jeremiah 31:2-3 ESV)

Weary in Well-doing

I would have gone; God bade me stay:
        I would have worked; God bade me rest.
He broke my will from day to day,
        He read my yearnings unexpressed,
                And said them nay.

Now I would stay; God bids me go:
        Now I would rest; God bids me work.
He breaks my heart tossed to and fro,
        My soul is wrung with doubts that lurk
                And vex it so.

I go, Lord, where Thou sendest me;
        Day after day I plod and moil:
But, Christ my God, when will it be
        That I may let alone my toil
                And rest with Thee?

~Christina Rossetti

There is grace in the wilderness. Even though we may feel like the waves just keep coming and we can't fight the undertow anymore, there is grace. 

Weary in Well-Doing

Ego-centrism and Teaching

Ruined by Knowledge--How ego-centrism affects teaching.

Future Self

The Psychology of Your Future Self: Dan Gilbert

Fascinating talk on how our projection about how much we will change is very very wrong. Great video to use in guidance.

Authentic Humility

"[A]uthentic humility is simply an attempt to see ourselves as we really are. Applied to our thinking, this means an uncompromisingly honest appraisal of the capacities and limitations of our minds against the standard of an all-knowing, infinitely intelligent and always true God. This reality check can be simultaneously heartening and sobering.

According to the Bible, we are created in God's image. This means that we are born as rational and creative beings with capacity to find and apply truth. This should be a source of immense encouragement to us. However, Scripture and reality both teach that our minds are also finite and tainted by the effects of sin, giving us good reason to approach both out own reasoning and the knowledge of others with a healthy degree of skepticism."

Philip E. Dow, Virtuous Minds: Intellectual Character Development

Shadow Comforts

"Are my choices comforting and nourishing my spirit, or are they temporary retrieves from vulnerability and difficult emotions ultimately diminishing my spirit? Are my choices leading to my Wholeheartedness,  or do they leave me feeling empty and searching?"

Brené Brown, Daring Greatly

"Smallness of Soul"

"[R]eading Thomas Aquinas (1224-74) on the virtue of courage, I happened across a vice which he called pusillanimity, which means 'smallness of soul.' Those afflicted by this vice, wrote Aquinas, shrink back from all that God has called them to be. When faced with the effort and difficulty of stretching themselves to the great things of which they are capable, the cringe and say, 'I can't.' In short the pusillanimous reply on their own puny powers and focus on their own potential for failure, rather than counting on God's grace to equip them for great work in his kingdom--work beyond anything they might have dreamed of for themselves." 

Rebecca Kronyndyk DeYoung, Glittering Vices: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins

Another example of the need for Christians to dare greatly through the power of the grace of Christ.